There is an ever increasing need to remove cost associated with the assembly of vehicles, and particularly with respect to vehicle components. It is conventional to separately manufacture a glass seal assembly and an inner garnish that is provided on the inside of a vehicle door above a belt line. The glass seal assembly is mounted around the perimeter of the window opening of the door and provides a seal lip that sealingly engages the edge of the window along the pillar portions (A and B pillars, or B and C pillars). The garnish provides an aesthetic cover that masks or hides a paint stripe that would otherwise be evident around the window perimeter (sometimes referred to in the industry as a skunk stripe). Each of these components is separately manufactured and separately secured to the vehicle. That is, the glass seal assembly has always been made separate from the garnish thereby adding substantially to manufacture and assembly costs associated with these components.
The seal assembly extends around the perimeter of the window opening, i.e., the glass sealing lip extending along the pillars, header, and the belt seal. These components are usually extruded components secured to a door flange by a series of spaced fasteners or attachment clips. Manufacturers of these glass seal assemblies are one supply source to the OEMs, and these manufacturers have developed their own expertise in the technology.
Separate and apart from the glass seal assembly manufacturers, different manufacturers provide an inner garnish. For definitional purposes, the garnish is generally identified as an interior aesthetic component having a grain or color that may match the vehicle interior and covers around the door perimeter. The garnish is not designed to impact sound transmission; rather, it is simply an aesthetic structure having extended or wide cover lips that function to hide paint lines. The garnish provides an aesthetically pleasing transition, for example, between the door window opening and the interior of the door and vehicle. Whereas the seal assembly is typically an extruded structure, the garnish is usually a molded component such as an injection molded plastic component that is separately secured to the vehicle.
The OEM incurs labor costs associated with assembly of each component to the vehicle. That is, the seal assembly is separately clipped or fastened around the window opening in a manner well known in the art. Likewise, the garnish is attached to the vehicle via fasteners at spaced locations around the window opening.